


Hello, Goodbye (Parallax)

by mylittlecthulhu (marineko)



Series: Red Shift [3]
Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-23
Updated: 2010-06-23
Packaged: 2017-12-31 06:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marineko/pseuds/mylittlecthulhu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Parallax: the apparent change in position of two objects viewed from different locations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hello, Goodbye (Parallax)

“Sho, we have to stop now, or they’ll charge us extra.” Sho made a face at Nino, but acquiesced. He wouldn’t have minded paying for the extra charges of using the studio, but that wasn’t how Red Shift worked. Everything was split between the band members. Still, he was reluctant to pack up his guitar, wanting a little more time.  
  
“Don’t make that face, Sho-chan,” Aiba said in a teasing manner. “We’re due to play at the Warehouse in a couple of hours, anyway.”  
  
It wasn’t about wanting to play longer, although there was a bit of that. It was wanting to be with Red Shift in the studio. Playing a live was great, too; Sho loved every moment of it ever since he joined the band. The way everything was so loud, and yet he couldn’t hear anything over the beat of his own heart. The way his nerves felt like they were on fire from the first strum of his guitar. The way Aiba’s bass would steal into his senses and make sure he could never think of anything else for the next few hours. Sometimes days would go by and he still had Aiba’s hooks playing in his head.  
  
 _He’s gotten really good lately_.  
  
“Aiba,” he said, feeling impulsive, “lets go somewhere before we head to Warehouse.”  
  
The bassist just gave him a strange look. “Where do you want to go?”  
  
“I don’t know. Anywhere. Just...  _somewhere_.”  
  
Nino was looking heavenward, no doubt exasperated with the other two. “I’m leaving now, so if we get stuck with extra charges, they’re on you guys, not on the band.” Before he left the room, he said, “don’t be late,” and then he was gone.  
  
Sugimoto wasn’t around that day; he had to help his girlfriend with something and said that he’d meet them at Warehouse instead. So only Sho and Aiba were left, and they looked at each other uncertainly. “You’re being a little strange,” Aiba informed Sho.  
  
Unconcerned, Sho just smiled. His nerves were still tingling from their rehearsal, and he thought at that moment that he owed Nino so much, because without Nino he wouldn’t have remembered how music made him feel alive, and without Nino he wouldn’t have met Aiba.  
  
The bassist was still looking at Sho, head tilted to the right, frowning a little. Sho wanted to pull Aiba into a kiss, a thought that made an entirely different set of tingles running through him. Instead, he contented himself by holding out a hand to Aiba.  
  
“Come on.”  
  
When Aiba’s hand took his, all Sho could think about was how their hands fit perfectly into each other’s, and that he didn’t ever want to let go.  
  


})i({

  
  
Sho was definitely weird that day. Not that Aiba minded, because ‘normal’ Sho wouldn’t have taken his hand the way he had done. Of course, it was pretty late in the evening, and there were no one else around as the two walked aimlessly in the street. If it had been just one week ago, he probably would have been on cloud nine.  
  
At the moment, though, Aiba was mostly confused.  
  


})i({

  
  
_“Nino, I don’t think he feels the same way about me.” The silence on the other side seemed to go on forever, and when Nino finally spoke, he sounded tired.  
  
“What’d he do?”  
  
“_Nothing _. That’s the problem. Maybe he just doesn’t love me,” he said, speaking his fears out loud. “Maybe he’s bored of me and just doesn’t know how to break it off. Maybe he never really wanted to be with me in the first place, and just went along with it because he didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Nino, maybe he’s only dating me because someone bet him to do it, like in that movie the other day! Or I guess it could be that this is not really Sho-chan and is like an evil clone, while the real Sho-chan is trapped somewhere waiting to be rescued...” his voice grew smaller and smaller with each word, and tapered to a stop when he realised that Nino wasn’t going to interrupt him like he usually did.  
  
He heard Nino’s long sigh over the phone, before Nino replied. “Come over to my place.”  
_  
  


})i({

  
  
Why was Sho being so good to him, if he didn’t love him? Aiba kept his gaze on Sho while they walked, guided only by the hand holding his. When Sho suddenly stopped walking, Aiba continued a couple of steps before feeling the tug on his hand. “Why did you stop?”  
  
“You keep giving me strange looks.”  
  
“Sorry,” Aiba muttered. He considered, just for a moment, the idea of asking Sho right out if Sho really wanted to be with him. But the thought of asking made him squirm, because he didn’t think he could take it if Sho admitted that he didn’t love Aiba, and besides, the thought of worrying whether Sho loved him or not seemed stupid and  _girlish_ , somehow. Maybe not even girlish, he supposed, since Nino’s sister seemed so much stronger than how Aiba felt at the moment.   
  
“Is there anything you want to ask me?”  
  
“Why’d you ask me that?”  
  
“Because you look like a series of questions are going to bubble out from you right now.”  
  
Aiba wondered why being with Sho made him feel so happy and uncertain and maybe a little sad at the same time. It was as if a part of him thought that they couldn’t continue like this forever, and the more he dwelled on that, the more scared he felt of their future, the more he wanted from Sho. He shook his head, but when Sho started to walk again, he pulled the singer back.  
  
“Sho-chan...”  
  
“Hmm?” Sho gave him a half-smile, and the affectionate look in his eyes caused a brief stab of pain in Aiba's chest.   
  
 _What are we doing, really? How long is this going to go on?_  
  
“Um, nothing.”  
  
“Okay...”   
  
But Sho didn’t move. He just looked at Aiba expectantly, knowing the other boy well. And true enough, after a few moments passed, Aiba spoke up again.  
  
“You’re not a clone or anything, right?”  
  
Sho blinked at him. When the question finally sunk in, he laughed shortly, but when Aiba glared he sobered up immediately. “I don’t know,” he said, straight-faced. “If I was, I wouldn’t tell you, would I?”  
  
“But if you were and I loved you then wouldn’t that be cheating on the real Sho?”  
  
Laughter again. “It’s okay. A clone would still be me, right? At least, I think so.”  
  
Looking at Sho as if he was sizing up the singer, Aiba finally concluded, “I hope you’re the real Sho.”  
  
“I hope so, too,” Sho replied gravely, but his expression now betrayed his amusement.  
  


})i({

  
  
Aiba was probably going to be the death of him, but if anyone ('anyone' usually being Nino) were to prod him about it, he would have to admit that he didn’t mind. He shook his head a little, thinking that at least this time Aiba wasn’t talking about aliens again.   
  
By the time they reached the small clearing that overlooked the small town, Aiba’s hand had left his, as the bassist ran towards the edge in exhilaration. Sho walked forwards, too, but stayed back a few steps from the edge. The clearing was really small, and pretty high up. The vertigo was making him a little dizzy, even from a distance. He looked up at the moon. It was partly covered by clouds. The stars were beginning to be visible, and he thought vaguely about borrowing Nino’s astronomy books one of these days, knowing that he’d forget all about it by the time he and Aiba got to the Warehouse.  
  
“Aiba, if you’re going to stand so close to the edge, pass me your guitar first,” he said.  
  
“I’m not going to  _fall_ , if that’s what you’re worried about.” Aiba looked back at him, though, with a mischievous expression. “Hey, Sho, you should come over here. The view is much nicer.”  
  
“I’m fine here, thank you very much.” Sho was looking at his hand, and thinking about how Aiba made him feel the same way that music did. Except that music never made his heart swell with some inexplicable feeling, until he thought that it might just explode out of him sometimes.  _I'm so in love._  The thought resounded within him and he could feel the huge grin waiting to break out of him, the loud, relieved laughter of  _knowing_ , but he kept a calm expression as he spoke the other boy's name.  
  
“Hmm?” Aiba was no longer looking at Sho, as he climbed on the railing that line the edge of the clearing to get even higher up. “What is it?”  
  
"I -"  
  
A sudden burst of laughter startled the both of them. Aiba almost lost his balance, and immediately climbed back down from the railing. The two of them turned to look far behind them, where three women - they looked like they were OLs - were walking together a little unsteadily and chatting loudly.  
  
They watched in silence until the women were out of sight, after which Aiba's attention went back to Sho. "You were saying?"  
  
“Come on, we need to get to Warehouse at least fifteen minutes before we’re supposed to go on.”  
  


})i({

  
  
Aiba wanted to complain that they just got there, but he walked up to Sho. He waited for a moment to see if Sho would take his hand again on their walk back down, but Sho just started walking the moment he fell in step with the singer.   
  
Perhaps in-step wasn’t quite the right way to put it, Aiba mused, since the two of them had seemed rather out of sync with each other of late.   
  
 _Maybe he doesn’t really love me_ , he thought to himself,  _but I’m not going to be the first to bring it up._


End file.
